I. Technical Field
The present invention pertains to the storage of information, and particularly to automated cartridge handling systems such as cartridge autoloaders and cartridge libraries which store cartridges or cassettes of magnetic information storage media.
II. Related Art and Other Considerations
In the early days of computers, information requiring storage could be transmitted from a computer to a transducing drive. At the drive the information was magnetically recorded on or read from a large reel of media such as a tape. Upon completion of an operation of recording on media (such a magnetic media, for example), the reel would be removed manually from the drive and mounted in a rack. Another reel from the rack could then be manually mounted, if necessary, in the drive for transducing of information, e.g., for either an input (media reading) or output (recording to media) operation.
Eventually it became popular to enclose magnetic media in a cartridge, the cartridge being considerably smaller than the traditional reels. Initially such cartridges were employed for use in a “tape deck” for reproduction of audio information (e.g., music), but subsequently such cartridges, in differing sizes, were used to store such information as computer data. For years now magnetic media cartridges have proven to be an efficient and effective medium for data storage, including but not limited to computer back-up.
There are many different types of tape cartridges, the Linear Tape Open™ (LTO) cartridge being one example cartridge type according to an established standard in the tape drive industry. Other non-limiting examples include QIC, SLR, DLT and DAT/DDS, and eight millimeter cartridges.
Computer systems often need to access several cartridges. To this end, automated cartridge handling systems, often generally referred to as cartridge libraries, have been utilized for making the cartridges automatically available to the computer.
Typically, prior art automated cartridge handling systems have an array of storage positions for cartridges, one or more drives, and some type of automated changer or cartridge engagement/transport mechanism for picking or gripping a cartridge and moving the cartridge between a storage position and the drive. Many of these automated libraries resemble juke boxes, particularly for large computer systems. Some of the relatively smaller types of cartridge libraries are typically referred to as autoloaders. Autoloaders typically have but one drive, and a fairly small number of storage positions or cells.
Automated cartridge handling systems typically employ a cartridge changer or cartridge engagement/transport mechanism for picking or gripping a cartridge and moving the cartridge between a storage position and the drive. Such rotobic mechanisms, often called a cartridge “picker” or “gripper”, are typically mounted in a handling system (e.g., library or autoloader) frame in order to introduce and remove cartridges relative to one or more stationary drives.
The following United States patents and patent applications, all commonly assigned herewith and incorporated herein by reference, disclose various configurations of automated cartridge libraries, as well as subcomponents thereof (including cartridge engagement/transport mechanisms, entry/exit ports, and storage racks for housing cartridges):
U.S. Pat. No. 4,984,106 to Herger et al., entitled “CARTRIDGE LIBRARY SYSTEM AND METHOD OF OPERATION THEREOF”.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,972,277 to Sills et al., entitled “CARTRIDGE TRANSPORT ASSEMBLY AND METHOD OF OPERATION THEREOF”.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,059,772 to Younglove, entitled “READING METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR CARTRIDGE LIBRARY”.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,103,986 to Marlowe, entitled “CARTRIDGE RACK”.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,237,467 and 5,416,653 to Marlowe, entitled “CARTRIDGE HANDLING APPARATUS AND METHOD WITH MOTION-RESPONSIVE EJECTION”.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,498,116 to Woodruff et al., entitled “ENTRY-EXIT PORT FOR CARTRIDGE LIBRARY”.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,487,579 to Woodruff et al., entitled PICKER MECHANISM FOR DATA CARTRIDGES”.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,718,339 to Woodruff et al., entitled “CARTRIDGE RACK AND LIBRARY FOR ENGAGING SAME”.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,739,978, entitled “CARTRIDGE HANDLING SYSTEM WITH MOVING I/O DRIVE”.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,008,964, entitled “CARTRIDGE LIBRARY AND METHOD OF OPERATION THEREOF”.
U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/970,205, entitled “CARTRIDGE LIBRARY WITH CARTRIDGE LOADER MOUNTED ON MOVEABLE DRIVE ASSEMBLY”.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,005,745, entitled “CARTRIDGE LIBRARY WITH ENTRY/EXIT PORT AND METHOD OF OPERATION THEREOF”.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,175,467, entitled “DATA CARTRIDGE LIBRARY WITH CARTRIDGE TRANSPORT ASSEMBLY”.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,239,941, entitled “CARTRIDGE LIBRARY AND METHOD OF OPERATION”.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,144,521, entitled “TAPE CARTRIDGE MAGAZINE WITH STRUCTURE TO PREVENT IMPOROPER LOADING OF CARTRIDGES”.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,236,530, entitled “DATA CARTRIDGE LIBRARY HAVING A PIVOTING CARTRIDGE TRANSPORT”.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,229,666, entitled “DATA CARTRIDGE LIBRARY HAVING A PIVOTING CARTRIDGE TRANSPORT”.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,233,111, entitled “DATA CARTRIDGE LIBRARY HAVING A PIVOTING CARTRIDGE TRANSPORT AND A CARTRIDGE STATUS INDICATOR”.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,466,396, entitled “CARTRIDGE LIBRARY”.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,385,003, entitled “CARTRIDGE LIBRARY”.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,462,900, entitled “CARTRIDGE PICKER ROBOT WITH RIBBON CABLE FOR cartridge library”.
U.S. Design Pat. No. D456,404, entitled “CARTRIDGE LIBRARY”.
U.S. Design Pat. No. D464,354, entitled “CARTRIDGE MAGAZINE”.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,612,499, entitled “CALIBRATION SCHEME FOR AUTOMATED TAPE LIBRARY”.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,473,261, entitled “CARTRIDGE OVERINSERTION PROTECTION FOR CARTRIDGE LIBRARY”.
U.S. Design Pat. No. D415,126, entitled “CARTRIDGE LIBRARY”.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,180,702, entitled “Automated Handling of Data Cartridges”.
It is desirable that at least some components of a cartridge library be as compact and efficient as possible, particularly the robot or cartridge engagement/transport apparatus of a cartridge library.